USC round 2 - week 1
Monday we started out the day
organizing all of the candy that we got for Christmas. We have a table in the
"living room" and the candy covered the whole table. We laughed about
the whole thing cause Elder W has gained 35 lbs since being on the mission and
his family was saying fat jokes when they skyped with him, and then our
families send us a ton of candy... oh the irony. We then did the usual shopping
and laundry, but this week we really didn't need to buy anything besides milk
because we already have a ton of food in the apartment that we both like. The
whole day I was trying to hang out with Elder N because he is one of my
good friends from the mission and he went home this week. We played basketball
with them and some other missionaries and it was really fun. Elder N and I
played some 1 on 1 soccer and he killed me on it, ugh it was embarrassing. We
took a picture that is kinda blurry but that doesn't really matter because we
are going to stay in touch with each other and he is going to go to BYUI and
then transfer over, so we will definitely see each other again. We then went to
drop off our laundry and groceries at the apartment before heading out for the
night. We wanted to try and visit a couple families, but nobody was home. Maybe
they were out of town for the holidays or just running errands, but we couldn't
find anyone home. Our lesson with Y was next and Y and her friend
were going to teach us the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because
they both have heard it and know it by heart. It was their first time doing
anything like that, so it wasn't "perfect" but I learned a lot from
them. I learned what I need to focus on more as a missionary when I teach the
Restoration. They also taught simply and with confidence (at some parts) and
that was just amazing. Elder W and I told them how good they did and
complimented them on how well they taught us, it was a good experience.
Tuesday we tried to contact all
of the referrals that we had. We stopped by a lot of houses, and the majority
of the people weren't home. There was this one house that we went through the
gate and knocked on the door. After the 2nd knock we see a man emerge from the
side of the house and he motions for us to come to him. While he was motioning
he was also heading towards the gate. We then start to speak to him in Spanish
and ask him if ... was home. He basically kicks us off his property and tells
us that we need to call the guy that we are looking for. We asked him if the
dude lived there but he didnt answer us at all. We walked away and then this
other guy came from the house and he was the guy we were looking for. He tells
us that he has never talked to missionaries (thats because people don't
remember the tiny conversations that we have with them in the streets sometimes
when all we get is their address) but he was really nice and he told us sorry
for what happened with the other dude. We biked around a lot. Peggy may have
lasted me this far into the mission, but she is super heavy! Elder W will just
cruise through the streets and I will be dying in the back. We had dinner with
the C family and I didnt know that the drink (they give us drinks when we
come over) that they have been giving us is the Aloe Vera drinks. They taste
pretty good! We thought it was a type of grape juice or something, so that was
nice to know what the mystery drink finally was. We talked with them for a
little bit and asked them if they knew anyone that would benefit from the
message of the gospel. They told us that they had some family close by that
they would like to have missionaries go and teach them! Boom! A full day of
nothing but contacting referrals and then a RC family wants to share the gospel
with their own relatives! Worth. It.
Wednesday we had another full
day of trying to find old investigators or referrals and the like. We knocked
on this one guys door and he comes out to talk with us while he is holding beer
in his hand. We figured that that meant that he was drunk and that we should
try to stop by another time, so we set up a time next week to visit him,
hopefully he isn't drunk that time. We ate dinner with the G family
and... oh my goodness. We ate dinner and we were talking to K and Hermana
G (grandma) and the other Hermana G (Great Grandma). Grandma then
was really tired because they had had a busy day and so she left right as we
were talking to Kevin. Hermano G (grandpa - ish because he is not
related to K) came in and just... ruined everything. We were talking about
the Plan of Salvation and it was going really well. K has such real intent
to find out for himself and he wants true facts. We explained the Plan of
Salvation and he had a couple questions which we answered for him and he was
good, and then, Hermano spoke. He asked a question about whether or not Jesus
went to Paradise or Prison because in the scriptures (he is just referring to
the Bible) it says that he preached to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19) but
when he was on the cross talking to the thieves, to one he said to day thou
shalt be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43) and so Hermano was saying that he was
confused. We bore testimony that the Restoration helps us understand parts of
scripture that don't make sense. We explained to him about Doctrine and
Covenants section 138 and how God still speaks to us through prophets. K agreed with us and we were so happy that we answered it, but then Hermano just
said "no, I don't believe that, I want someone else to explain it to
me".... AAHH!! Then K asks "do mormons keep the sabbath day
holy?" To which we said yes. K then asks why the Mormons go to church
on Sunday if the Sabbath is on Saturday in the scriptures. Hermano then says
that "everyday" is the Sabbath day because you can always read the
scriptures... oh my goodness. The great grandma then butts in and starts
arguing with Hermano about doctrine and so now we had both members fighting and
saying false doctrine. Well, at the end the great grandma told K (this is
after a little while of them two arguing) that if he wants to learn truth, to
ask the missionaries (thank you) because that is why they are here to teach us
(them). So we told K to read in the scriptures and he will be able to
understand what God has revealed to all of us. It was such a good lesson at the
beginning, but then the spirit just left.
Thursday we taught S and
did service which was cool. Gosh I really hate when I forget to write at night
cause all you get is a stupid sentence like this one...
platypus in spanish is
ornitorrinco
Friday was a pretty crazy day
too. We had district meeting with our "new district" even though the
only new person is a greenie that Elder A is training in the Jungle area.
The Greenie is named Elder D and he is from Nevada and he totally went to
the Provo MTC, hands down. The DM was good and it was one of those meetings
that we were all pumped to go out and just work like crazy afterwards, thats
because of the awesome DL that we have, he is super funny and crazy. We were right about to head out for the day when we get a call from Elder
A. He told us that he had a referral to give to us and he gives us the
referral for P O. He then tells us that they thought she was on their
side of the border, but that she is on our side. He THEN says that they had an
appointment with her, 15 minutes ago, and that we need to go and have the
lesson with her. We call the number and she tells us her real address and we
head there immediately. We get to the door and we are immediately invited in.
We sit at the kitchen table and P brings her 3 children to join in the
lesson with her. Her kids V (19) E (16) and J (13) and joined
and participated during the lesson. We did one of the best HTBT lessons ever!
E is so cool too! We asked him questions like these and this was his
response.
Who is God? He is our Heavenly
Father who sent his son Jesus Christ to the earth to die for us. (Boom!)
Why does prayer help us? It is
how we communicate with God, and God listens to us. (Boom!)
What does baptism mean to you?
It means giving yourself to God. (Boom!!!!!)
The mom at one point leaned
over to the daughter and asked her "do you want to get baptized? I
do." We are really excited for this miracle family. They are also from
Honduras so naturally we text the ONLY member in the ward form Honduras that we
found a family from there and we already have her coming out with us to the
next lesson we have with them for next week!!! Super awesome miracle. We then stopped
by the A family to see how everything is going there. Wendy told us that
she started her divorce papers!! That is such a huge miracle because that is
what is stopping Jairo from joining the church! If y'all remember we had an
amazing lesson last transfer when the Ms came out with us to visit them
and they told Wendy that she needed to start on the papers immediately, so
thanks to the Ms everything started. We then had to leave to go to our
dinner appointment and we tell W that next time we stop by that we will
bring the permission form for her to sign so that G can be baptized to
which she tells us that G has been begging her to be baptized and W was
just wanting to know when. W then assured us that she will help G really focus to prepare to be baptized, cause G is just crrraaaazy! Dinner
was just, ugh, rough. A member took us out to this burger joint and lets just
say that the food didnt settle too good with either elder here, but the taste
was super good!
Saturday was New Years Eve so
we had to be inside our apartment by 6:00. We had some plans earlier in the day
to try and go visit this one potential that we had set an appointment with and
then try to visit some others around him, but the lesson fell through cause he
didnt answer the door and nobody else was home. It is really weird because it
has been raining a lot recently (a lot meaning at all because LA never rains).
So when the rain comes, everyone doesn't open the door or is outside, so its
really rough for missionaries, but it makes all the more interesting story
later on right? Well we decided to go and visit the C family because
they are super cool. M, the son, is super humble. When we stopped by the
first time to visit with them we asked him if he knew anyone that would benefit
from the message of the Gospel in their lives right now, and he told us "I
need it" and so we are starting to teach him. He is super cool and just
loves when we come over, and we like going over too, so its super fun. We
talked with him for a bit and we also showed him a Mormon Message which he
really liked. We set a time to come back and teach the whole family which will
be really good because the dad is a non member, but he is the eternigator of
the ward among the many here so its not likely that anything will happen, but
hey, maybe its his time, who knows. We then walked back to our apartment in
enough time to be in before our ZLs came to check up on us to see if we were
inside by the "curfew" time. From 6-9 we did a lot of stuff, we ate
dinner, cleaned a little bit, just random stuff really.
Sunday was a good day. Church
started at 10:20 but nobody really showed up cause it was New Year's Day. We
had some people show up which was nice. What was super cool is that G came to church! She sat down right behind me (Elder W plays the piano and I sit
with the C family) and she leans over and with big eyes and a huge smile
says "I read! I read what you gave me in the Book of Mormon, now you can
give me something else to read!" She is so awesome. We totally know that
she is going to be baptized one day, its just a matter of time really. We went
home to have lunch but then A called us to ask what time we would go eat
dinner with him. It was about 2:50 and he asked if we could come at 3. Then
there was a baptism at 4 so Elder W said sure. We got to dinner at 3:10 and L had made pozole so that was super lot of food there. We had to leave a little
earlier so that Elder W could pray some prelude music for the baptism. The
english ward, the Adams ward, had a baptism and the girl that was baptized
invited Y to go to the baptism and Elder W was asked to play, so we went.
The baptism was AMAZING! The ZLs were there and President and Sister Haynie
were there too. The room was PACKED with people and the spirit was super strong
there. The members that participated in the service testified of how strong the
spirit was and you could just feel it. It was, just so strong. The rest of the
day we spent trying to talk to people but they just weren't having a good
Sunday I guess, they must not have gone to church or something.
Hope the week goes good!
Love,
Elder Roberts
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